Noticing Newbies

Where you start it will totally depend on whether or not you feel it really necessary to tell the story from that point.

There are always options on what you can do.

As far as POV...again, it depends on how you want to tell her story. If you try to go from the first person, then keep in mind you'll have to give the story a lot of emotional punch. That can sometimes be tough to pull off. Sometimes, it's a little easier to translate that punch from a more detached perspective. Of course, in some of the situations, you can actually do both. Go to first person to give the reader some insight on what is going on in her mind. That kind of thing.